It’s another trip down memory lane for Richard Thomas as he recalls the one that got away from Phil North in the year Glamorgan won the County Championship title, 20 years ago this summer.
It might not have been a particularly defining match on the way to the 1997 County Championship title, but the annual visit to Colwyn Bay to play Nottinghamshire was incident-packed to say the least.
The four days at Glamorgan’s north Wales outpost involved choppers, a lost TV remote control, and headline-grabbing player disciplinary problems.
The Welsh county had travelled the four hours to Rhos-on-Sea, the home of Colwyn Bay Cricket Club, knowing victory over Notts would have propelled them to the top of the championship table with six games of the season remaining.
But it all started with a bit of drama surrounding Glamorgan’s spin department. Firstly, Robert Croft arrived at the ground in a helicopter having been made a member of the Gorsedd at the Eisteddfod at Bala.
He had arrived hoping to team up with fellow spinner Phil North, who had been drafted into a team he last played eight years before as Dean Cosker was unavailable due to England Under-19s duties.
Unfortunately, for North, he rather celebrated his Glamorgan recall too well during the first day which had been rendered a complete wash-out.
And when he failed to arrive on the second morning, having overslept, skipper Matthew Maynard had no choice but to leave North out.
My own memory of the event was being involved in an impromptu ‘press conference’ in the Colwyn Bay CC car park where North explained the reasons for his tardiness and his obvious regret that a potential championship winning medal had been ripped from his grasp by his decision to turn left into the hotel bar rather than right into the lift. It was the cricket equivalent of Sliding Doors.
Meanwhile, back at the cricket and there was drama on the boundary during the second day’s play when an announcement came over the tannoy from the then scorer Byron Denning asking: “Will a Mr Will Jones of Pontardawe (the name has been changed to avoid embarrassment) report urgently to the Glamorgan office please?”
When Mr Jones was seen walking around the boundary an hour or so later he was asked what the problem was. “Oh, just the bloody wife on the phone from home. She couldn’t find the remote control.”
If Mrs Jones couldn’t locate the zapper, then Glamorgan certainly mislaid their zip in attempting to turn over Nottinghamshire.
And it probably had something to do with the fact Croft had to carry the burden of the spin duties alone.
After bowling Notts out for only 202, a Steve James century allowed Maynard to declare Glamorgan’s first innings on 353 for six.
Needing to score 151 to make Glamorgan bat again the visitors were reduced to 32 for four before the ninth wicket pair of Chris Tolley and James Hindson saw Notts to the close.
At that moment North probably wondered what he had done and no doubt feared that Glamorgan’s championship hopes were heading south.